2014http://www.pcper.com
PC Perspectivehttp://www.pcper.com/images/podcast-logo-600x600.pngenIntel Announces Q3 2014: Mucho Dinerohttp://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Intel-Announces-Q3-2014-Mucho-Dinero
<p>Yesterday Intel released their latest quarterly numbers, and they were pretty spectacular.&nbsp; Some serious milestones were reached last quarter, much to the dismay of Intel&rsquo;s competitors.&nbsp; Not everything is good with the results, but the overall quarter was a record one for Intel.&nbsp; The company reported revenues of $14.55 billion dollars with a net income of $3.31 billion.&nbsp; This is the highest revenue for a quarter in the history of Intel. &nbsp;This also is the first quarter in which Intel has shipped 100 million processors.</p>
<p>The death of the PC has obviously been overstated as the PC group had revenue of around $9 billion.&nbsp; The Data Center group also had a very strong quarter with revenues in the $3.7 billion range.&nbsp; These two groups lean heavily on Intel&rsquo;s 22 nm TriGate process, which is still industry leading.&nbsp; The latest Haswell based processors are around 10% of shipping units so far.&nbsp; The ramp up for these products has been pretty impressive.&nbsp; Intel&rsquo;s newest group, the Internet of Things, has revenues that shrank by around 2% quarter over quarter, but it has grown by around 14% year over year.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Editorial/Intel-Announces-Q3-2014-Mucho-Dinero" class="inline-image-link" title="View: Intel-Swimming-in-Money.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-10-15/Intel-Swimming-in-Money.jpg" alt="Intel-Swimming-in-Money.jpg" title="Intel-Swimming-in-Money.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="278" height="253" /></a></div></p>
<p>Not all news is good news though.&nbsp; Intel is trying desperately to get into the tablet and handheld markets, and so far has had little traction.&nbsp; The group reported revenues in the $1 million range.&nbsp; Unfortunately, that $1 million is offset by about $1 billion in losses.&nbsp; This year has seen an overall loss for mobile in the $3 billion range.&nbsp; While Intel arguably has the best and most efficient process for mobile processors, it is having a hard time breaking into this ARM dominated area.&nbsp; There are many factors involved here.&nbsp; First off there are more than a handful of strong competitors working directly against Intel to keep them out of the market.&nbsp; Secondly x86 processors do not have the software library or support that ARM has in this very dynamic and fast growing section.&nbsp; We also must consider that while Intel has the best overall process, x86 processors are really only now achieving parity in power/performance ratios.&nbsp; Intel still is considered a newcomer in this market with their 3D graphics support.</p>
<p>Intel is quite happy to take this loss as long as they can achieve some kind of foothold in this market.&nbsp; Mobile is the future, and while there will always be the need for a PC (who does heavy duty photo editing, video editing, and immersive gaming on a mobile platform?) the mobile market will be driving revenues from here on out.&nbsp; Intel absolutely needs to have a presence here if they wish to be a leader at driving technologies in this very important market.&nbsp; Intel is essentially giving away their chips to get into phones and tablets, and eventually this will pave the way towards a greater adoption.&nbsp; There are still hurdles involved, especially on the software side, but Intel is working hard with developers and Google to make sure support is there.&nbsp; Intel is likely bracing themselves for a new generation of 20 nm and 16 nm FinFET ARM based products that will start showing up in the next nine months.&nbsp; The past several years has seen Intel push mobile up to high priority in terms of process technology.&nbsp; Previously these low power, low cost parts were relegated to an N+1 process technology from Intel, but with the strong competition from ARM licensees and pure-play foundries Intel can no longer afford that.&nbsp; We will likely see 14 nm mobile parts from Intel sooner as opposed to later.</p>
<p>Intel has certainly shored up a lot of their weaknesses over the past few years.&nbsp; Their integrated 3D/GPU support has improved in leaps and bounds over the years, their IPC and power consumption with CPUs is certainly industry leading, and they continue to pound out impressive quarterly reports.&nbsp; Intel is certainly firing on all cylinders at this time and the rest of the industry is struggling to keep up.&nbsp; It will be interesting to see if Intel will keep up with this pace, and it will be imperative for the company to continue to push into mobile markets.&nbsp; I have never counted Intel out as they have a strong workforce, a solid engineering culture, and some really amazingly smart people (except Francois&hellip; he is just slightly above average- he is a GT-R aficionado after all).</p>
<p>Next quarter appears to be more of the same.&nbsp; Intel is expecting revenue in the $14.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million.&nbsp; This continues along with the strong sales of PC and server parts for Intel that helps buoy them to these impressive results.&nbsp; Net income and margins again look to appear similar to what this past quarter brought to the table.&nbsp; We will see the introduction of the latest 14 nm Broadwell processors, which is an important step for Intel.&nbsp; 14 nm development and production has taken longer than people expected, and Intel has had to lean on their very mature 22 nm process longer than they wanted to.&nbsp; This has allowed a few extra quarters for the pure-play foundries to try to catch up.&nbsp; Samsung, TSMC, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are all producing 20 nm products with a fast transition to 16/14 nm FinFET by early next year.&nbsp; This is not to say that these 16/14nm FinFET products will be on par with Intel&rsquo;s 14 nm process, but it at least gets them closer.&nbsp; In the near term though, these changes will have very little effect on Intel and their product offerings over the next nine months.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Intel-Announces-Q3-2014-Mucho-Dinero" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Intel-Announces-Q3-2014-Mucho-Dinero#commentsEditorial14nm201422nmamdarmBroadwellhaswellIntelQ3quarterlyResultsrevenueWed, 15 Oct 2014 16:39:04 +0000Josh Walrath61479 at http://www.pcper.comTidbits from the 2014 Samsung SSD Summithttp://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit
<p>Here are some goodies from yesterdays briefings at the 2014 Samsung SSD Summit:</p>
<p>Slides from the 3D V-NAND discussion. These provide some additional visuals for what I explained in the <a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Samsung-850-Pro-512GB-Full-Review-NAND-Goes-3D">intro to the 850 PRO series SSD review</a>:</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01813.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01813.JPG" alt="DSC01813.JPG" title="DSC01813.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01829.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01829.JPG" alt="DSC01829.JPG" title="DSC01829.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01832.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01832.JPG" alt="DSC01832.JPG" title="DSC01832.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01842.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01842.JPG" alt="DSC01842.JPG" title="DSC01842.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01843.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01843.JPG" alt="DSC01843.JPG" title="DSC01843.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01845.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01845.JPG" alt="DSC01845.JPG" title="DSC01845.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01866.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01866.JPG" alt="DSC01866.JPG" title="DSC01866.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="300" /></a></div></p>
<p>Next we got into current launching lineups. First the 850 PRO that launched today:</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01923.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01923.JPG" alt="DSC01923.JPG" title="DSC01923.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="200" /></a></div></p>
<p>Samsung also launched an 845DC PRO, which uses the previous generation 24-layer V-NAND:</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01968.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01968.JPG" alt="DSC01968.JPG" title="DSC01968.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="200" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01959.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01959.JPG" alt="DSC01959.JPG" title="DSC01959.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="200" /></a></div></p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01963.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01963.JPG" alt="DSC01963.JPG" title="DSC01963.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="200" /></a></div></p>
<p>Finally, as we walked out of the conference, we saw a 32-layer V-NAND wafer on display:</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: IMG_6814.JPG"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/IMG_6814.JPG" alt="IMG_6814.JPG" title="IMG_6814.JPG" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="800" /></a></div></p>
<p>Taking die pictures is tricky...</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01633_DxO-.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01633_DxO-.jpg" alt="DSC01633_DxO-.jpg" title="DSC01633_DxO-.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="401" /></a></div></p>
<p>...but persistence is rewarded:</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" class="inline-image-link" title="View: DSC01731_DxO--.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-07-01/DSC01731_DxO--.jpg" alt="DSC01731_DxO--.jpg" title="DSC01731_DxO--.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="401" /></a></div></p>
<p>More to follow!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/Tidbits-2014-Samsung-SSD-Summit#commentsStorage2014SamsungssdSummitV-NANDWed, 02 Jul 2014 01:53:41 +0000Allyn Malventano60658 at http://www.pcper.comAMD CES 2014 Presentation: Kaveri Goes Officialhttp://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official
<p>This year&rsquo;s AMD CES was actually more interesting than I was expecting.&nbsp; The details of the event were well known, as most Kaveri details have been revealed over the past few months.&nbsp; I was unsure what Lisa Su and the gang would go over, but it was actually more interesting than I was expecting.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" class="inline-image-link" title="View: kav01.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-01-07/kav01.jpg" alt="kav01.jpg" title="kav01.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="337" /></a></div></p>
<p>This past year has been a big one for AMD.&nbsp; They seem to be doing a lot better than others expected them to, especially with all of the delayed product launches on the CPU side for quite a few years.&nbsp; This year saw the APU take a pretty prominent place in the industry with the launch of the latest generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft.&nbsp; AMD made inroads with mobile form factors with a variety of APUs.&nbsp; The HSA Foundation members have grown and HSA members ship two out of every three connected, smart devices.&nbsp; Apple also includes Firepro graphics cards with all of their new Mac Pros.</p>
<p>Kaveri is of course the big news here.&nbsp; AMD feels that this is the best APU yet.&nbsp; The combination of Steamroller CPU cores, GCN graphics compute cores, HSA, hUMA, HQ, TrueAudio, Mantle support, PCI-E 3.0 support, and a configurable TDP makes for a pretty compelling product.&nbsp; AMD has shuffled some nomenclature about by saying that Kaveri, at the top end, is comprised of 12 compute cores.&nbsp; These include 4 Steamroller cores and 8 GCN compute clusters.&nbsp; Each compute cluster matches the historical definition of a core, but of course it looks quite a bit different than a traditional x86 core.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" class="inline-image-link" title="View: kav02.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-01-07/kav02.jpg" alt="kav02.jpg" title="kav02.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="339" /></a></div></p>
<p>We have gone over Kaveri pretty extensively in the past.&nbsp; The CPU is clocked at 3.7 GHz with a 4 GHz boost.&nbsp; The graphics portion clocks in at 720 MHz.&nbsp; It can support up to DDR-3 2400 MHz memory, which is really needed to extract as much performance out of this new APU.&nbsp; Benchmarks provided by AMD show this product to be a big jump from the previous Richland, and in these particular benchmarks are quite a bit faster than the competing i5 4670K.</p>
<p>Gaming performance is also improved.&nbsp; This APU can run most current applications at 1080P resolutions with low to medium quality settings.&nbsp; Older titles can be run at 1080P with Medium to High/Extreme settings.&nbsp; While this processor is rated at around 867 GFLOPS, which is around 110 GFLOPS greater than the previous top end Richland, it is more efficient at delivering that theoretical performance.&nbsp; It looks to be a significant improvement all around.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" class="inline-image-link" title="View: kav03.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-01-07/kav03.jpg" alt="kav03.jpg" title="kav03.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="339" /></a></div></p>
<p>Software support is improving with applications from companies like Adobe, The Document Foundation, and Nuance.&nbsp; These cover HSA applications and in Nuance&rsquo;s case, using the TrueAudio portion to clean up and accelerate voice recognition.&nbsp; TrueAudio is also being supported in five upcoming games.&nbsp; This is not a huge amount, but it is a decent start for this new technology.</p>
<p>Mantle is gaining a lot more momentum with support from 3 engines, 5 developers, and 20+ games in development.&nbsp; They showed off Battlefied 4 running Mantle on a Kaveri APU for the first time publicly.&nbsp; They mentioned that it ran 45% faster than Direct3D at the same quality levels on the same hardware.&nbsp; The display showed frame rates up in the low 50 fps area.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" class="inline-image-link" title="View: kav04.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-01-07/kav04.jpg" alt="kav04.jpg" title="kav04.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="339" /></a></div></p>
<p>AMD is continuing to move forward on their low power offerings based on Beema and Mullins.&nbsp; Lisa claims that these parts are outperforming the Intel Baytrail offerings in both CPU performance and graphics.&nbsp; Unfortunately, she mentioned noting about the power consumption associated with these results.&nbsp; They showed off the Discovery tablet as well as a fully functional PC that was the size of a large cellphone.</p>
<p>They closed up the even by talking about the Surround House 2.&nbsp; This demo looks significantly better than the previous iteration we saw last year.&nbsp; This features something like a 34.2 speaker setup in a projected dome.&nbsp; It is much more complex than the House from last year, but the hardware running it all is rather common.&nbsp; A single high end Firepro card running on a single A10 7850K.&nbsp; The demo is also one of the first shows of a 360 degree gesture recognition setup.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" class="inline-image-link" title="View: kav05.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2014-01-07/kav05.jpg" alt="kav05.jpg" title="kav05.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="339" /></a></div></p>
<p>AMD has come a long way since hitting rock bottom a few years back.&nbsp; They continue to claw their way back to relevance, and they hope that Kaveri will help them regain a foothold in the computing market.&nbsp; They are certainly doing well in the graphics market, but the introduction of Kaveri should help them gain more momentum in the CPU/APU market.&nbsp; We have yet to test Kaveri on our own, but initial results look promising. &nbsp;It is a better APU, but we just don&rsquo;t know how much better so far.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://bit.ly/AMDatCES" target="_blank"><img alt="Coverage of CES 2014 is brought to you by AMD!" src="/files/fixed/ads/amd_ces_banner1.jpg" /></a></p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://bit.ly/AMDatCES" target="_blank"><em>PC Perspective&#39;s CES 2014 coverage is sponsored by </em></a><em><a href="http://bit.ly/AMDatCES" target="_Blank">AMD</a>.</em></p>
<p align="center"><em>Follow all of our coverage of the show at </em><a href="http://pcper.com/ces"><em>http://pcper.com/ces</em></a><em>!</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-CES-2014-Presentation-Kaveri-Goes-Official#commentsProcessors2014A10 7700KA10 7850KamdAPUCESfireprohsaKaveriTue, 07 Jan 2014 09:52:16 +0000Josh Walrath59308 at http://www.pcper.comAMD's plans for 2014 http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-plans-2014
<p><a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131218PD214.html">DigiTimes has put together an overview of AMD&#39;s plans</a> to take back market share over the coming year, though of course AMD is not confirming or denying the accuracy of their report.&nbsp; First off will be the coming of the 28nm Kaveri family in January with availability planned to follow quickly.&nbsp; Beema, which will be based on the Puma+ architecture should arrive in the summer but there is also a Kabini-based series for the new socket, FS1B, which will get limited release in some areas.&nbsp; FS1B will be used for up coming Sempron and Athlon models designed for low power usage scenarios though don&#39;t expect to see AM3+ or FM2 disappear any time soon.&nbsp; You will have to wait for 2015 before Carrizo and Nolan make an appearance.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/General-Tech/AMDs-plans-2014" class="inline-image-link" title="View: amd.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-12-18/amd.jpg" alt="amd.jpg" title="amd.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="165" /></a></div></p>
<blockquote><p>&quot;AMD has been enhancing the marketing of its processors in DIY markets and aims to increase its global DIY market share from about 30% currently to 40%, and to reach a DIY market share above 45% in China in particular, at the end of 2014, according to Taiwan-based motherboard makers.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here is some more Tech News from around the web:</p>
<p><b><a href="http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=54">Tech Talk</a></b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=19485" target="_blank">NVIDIA Optimus On Ubuntu 13.10 Linux vs. Windows 8.1 @ Phoronix</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/17/microsoft_no_ballmer_successor_this_year/" target="_blank">Microsoft admits: We WON&#39;T pick the next Steve Ballmer this year @ The Register</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/18/iec_pitches_standard_for_notebook_chargers/" target="_blank">Drawers full of different chargers? The IEC has a one-plug-to-rule-them-all @ The Register</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/17/fake_firefox_addon_target_hunting_botnet/" target="_blank">Bogus Firefox add-on FORCES WITLESS USERS to join vuln-hunting party @ The Register</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131218PD207.html" target="_blank">Samsung, TSMC to share Apple 14/16nm chip orders @ DigiTimes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2319858/half-of-it-pros-plan-to-use-windows-xp-after-support-ends-in-2014" target="_blank">Half of IT pros plan to use Windows XP after support ends in 2014 @ The Inquirer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.hardocp.com/news/2013/12/18/porsche_proves_mpaa_wrong_by_letting_you_download_car" target="_blank">Porsche Proves MPAA Wrong By Letting You Download a Car @ [H]ard|OCP </a></li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-plans-2014" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-plans-2014#commentsGeneral Tech2014amdbeemaFS1BKabiniWed, 18 Dec 2013 18:21:11 +0000Jeremy Hellstrom59158 at http://www.pcper.comAMD Releases 2014 Mobile APU Details: Beema and Mullins Cut TDPshttp://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs
<p>AMD&rsquo;s APU13 is all about APUs and their programming, but the hardware we have seen so far has been dominated by the upcoming Kaveri products for FM2+.&nbsp; It seems that AMD has more up their sleeves for release this next year, and it has somewhat caught me off guard.&nbsp; The Beema and Mullins based products are being announced today, but we do not have exact details on these products.&nbsp; The codenames have been around for some time now, but interest has been minimal since they are evolutionary products based on Kabini and Temash APUs that have been available this year.&nbsp; Little did I know that things would be far more interesting than that.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs" class="inline-image-link" title="View: apu13_01.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-11-13/apu13_01.png" alt="apu13_01.png" title="apu13_01.png" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="329" /></a></div></p>
<p>The basis for Beema and Mullins is the Puma core.&nbsp; This is a highly optimized revision of Jaguar, and in some ways can be considered a new design.&nbsp; All of the basics in terms of execution units, caches, and memory controllers are the same.&nbsp; What AMD has done is go through the design with a fine toothed comb and make it far more efficient per clock than what we have seen previously.&nbsp; This is still a 28 nm part, but the extra attention and love lavished upon it by AMD has resulted in a much more efficient system architecture for the CPU and GPU portions.</p>
<p>The parts will be offered in two and four core configurations.&nbsp; Beema will span from 10W to 25W configurations.&nbsp; Mullins will go all the way down to &ldquo;2W SDP&rdquo;.&nbsp; SDP essentially means that while the chip can be theoretically rated higher, it will rarely go above that 2W envelope in the vast majority of situations.&nbsp; These chips are expected to be around 2X more efficient per clock than the previous Jaguar based products.&nbsp; This means that at similar clock speeds, Beema and Mullins will pull far less power than that previous gen.&nbsp; It should also allow some higher clockspeeds at the top end 25W area.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs" class="inline-image-link" title="View: apu13_02.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-11-13/apu13_02.png" alt="apu13_02.png" title="apu13_02.png" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="327" /></a></div></p>
<p>These will be some of the first fanless quad cores that AMD will introduce for the tablet market.&nbsp; Previously we have seen tablets utilize the cut down versions of Temash to hit power targets, but with this redesign it is entirely possible to utilize the fully enabled quad core Mullins.&nbsp; AMD has not given us specific speeds for these products, but we can guess that they will be around what we see currently, but the chip will just have a lower TDP rating.</p>
<p>AMD is introducing their new security platform based on the ARM Trustzone.&nbsp; Essentially a small ARM Cortex A5 is integrated in the design and handles the security aspects of this feature.&nbsp; We were not briefed on how this achieves security, but the slide below gives some of the bullet points of the technology.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs" class="inline-image-link" title="View: apu13_03.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-11-13/apu13_03.png" alt="apu13_03.png" title="apu13_03.png" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="325" /></a></div></p>
<p>Since the pure-play foundries will not have a workable 20 nm process for AMD to jump to in a timely manner, AMD had no other choice but to really optimize the Jaguar core to make it more competitive with products from Intel and the ARM partners.&nbsp; At 28 nm the ARM ecosystem has a power advantage over AMD, while at 22 nm Intel offers similar performance to AMD but with greater power efficiency.</p>
<p>This is a necessary update for AMD as the competition has certainly not slowed down.&nbsp; AMD is more constrained obviously by the lack of a next-generation process node available for 1H 2014, so a redesign of this magnitude was needed.&nbsp; The performance per watt metric is very important here, as it promises longer battery life without giving up the performance people received from the previous Kabini/Temash family of APUs.&nbsp; This design work could be carried over to the next generation of APUs using 20 nm and below, which hopefully will keep AMD competitive with the rest of the market.&nbsp; Beema and Mullins are interesting looking products that will be shown off at CES 2014.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs" class="inline-image-link" title="View: apu13_04.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-11-13/apu13_04.png" alt="apu13_04.png" title="apu13_04.png" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="113" /></a></div></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-Releases-2014-Mobile-APU-Details-Beema-and-Mullins-Cut-TDPs#commentsProcessors2014amdAPUapu13beemaGCNJaguarmobileMullinsPumaWed, 13 Nov 2013 22:35:12 +0000Josh Walrath58918 at http://www.pcper.comAMD's unannouced 2014 roadmaphttp://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-unannouced-2014-roadmap
<p>As is usually the case, AMD will not comment on the accuracy of DigiTimes information but as we have seen in the past their roadmaps have been spot on.&nbsp; Over the next 8 months or so will see the arrival of the Hawaii GPU family and the entrance of Kaveri and Kabini chips, nothing new there but good to have independent confirmation.&nbsp; In the latter part of 2014 and 2015 things are a little more interesting as Beema will replace Kabini with an HSA compliant architecture and use a new socket called FS1B.&nbsp; In 2015 Beema will be replaced by a chip called Nolan and we will finally see the Excavator based Carrizo which are slated to have 45W and 65W versions.</p>
<p>You can expect to see FM1 and AM3 phased out of active production by the end of 2013, with AM3+ and FM2 being the two active sockets until FS1B arrives.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/General-Tech/AMDs-unannouced-2014-roadmap" class="inline-image-link" title="View: amd.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-08-27/amd.jpg" alt="amd.jpg" title="amd.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="492" height="102" /></a></div></p>
<blockquote><p>&quot;AMD has recently updated its product roadmap and is set to release its Hawaii-based GPUs at the end of September, Kaveri-based APUs for the high-end segment and Kabini-based APUs for the entry-level segment in the first quarter of 2014, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here is some more Tech News from around the web:</p>
<p><b><a href="http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=54">Tech Talk</a></b></p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/26/nokia_windows_rt_tablet/" target="_blank">What Surface RT flop? Nokia said to be readying WinRT slab for September @ The Register</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2291040/java-6-exploit-found-in-the-wild" target="_blank">Java 6 exploit found in the wild @ The Inquirer</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/54445" target="_blank">Chlorine has got graphene covered @ Nanotechweb</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2291096/samsung-will-launch-a-55in-curved-oled-3d-tv-in-the-uk-on-5-september" target="_blank">Samsung will launch a 55in curved OLED 3D TV in the UK on 5 September @ The Inquirer</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4741/the-20-most-bizarre-and-innovative-motherboards-1999---2010" target="_blank">The 20 most bizarre and innovative motherboards: 1999 - 2010 @ Hardware.Info</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130827PD200.html" target="_blank">NAND flash vendors gearing up for 3D chips @ DigiTimes</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://vr-zone.com/articles/epic-games-tim-sweeney-amd-dont-see-eye-eye-huma/53374.html#ixzz2d9sk6WBA" target="_blank">Epic Games&rsquo; Tim Sweeney and AMD don&rsquo;t see eye-to-eye on hUMA @ VR-Zone</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.kitguru.net/networking/routers/simon-telford/linksys-smart-wi-fi-router-ea6500-review/" target="_blank">Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router EA6500 @ Kitguru</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.eteknix.com/tp-link-tl-pa551kit-av550-gigabit-powerline-kit-with-ac-passthrough-review/" target="_blank">TP-Link TL-PA551KIT AV550+ Gigabit Powerline Kit With AC Passthrough @ eTeknix</a></li>
<li>
<a href="http://hackaday.com/2013/08/26/making-smores-with-50000-volts/" target="_blank">Making S&rsquo;mores with 50,000 Volts @ Hack a Day</a></li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-unannouced-2014-roadmap" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/AMDs-unannouced-2014-roadmap#commentsGeneral Tech20142015amdbeemacarrizoExcavatorKabiniKaveriNolanroadmapsocket sf1bTue, 27 Aug 2013 16:30:44 +0000Jeremy Hellstrom58261 at http://www.pcper.com